Ilene Woods, voice of Disney's Cinderella, dies at 81

Ilene Woods, a singer who provided the voice of Cinderella for Walt Disney's 1950 animated film, died Thursday at age 81.

A native of Portsmouth, N.H., Woods was a radio star as a teenager. As a favor to songwriters Mack David and Jerry Livingston, she made demo recordings of "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo," "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" and "So This is Love" in 1948. The songwriters made their pitch to Walt Disney, who had already auditioned more than 300 singers and wasn't satisfied with any voices. When he heard Woods, he asked her to audition and she got the role.

She later married Ed Shaughnessy, a jazz drummer who performed for many years with Doc Severinsen's band on "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson."

Woods was declared a Disney Legend in 2003.

A full obituary will follow at latimes.com/obits.

-- Claire Noland

Comments

[Coco]

May a real princess rest in peace. She was an original. I love that movie!

[rachel]

I met her in the 1980's. She was so lovely.

[Lisa]

Yes she was lovely -It's hard to believe she was only a teenager when she did the singing and voice for Cinderella. No girl or woman singer today sounds like this woman . They all try to copy Madonna or Lady Gaga - Nobody's original like this woman was.